TALKS aimed at saving the jobs of 500 people at one of Bromsgrove's largest employers have broken down, the Advertiser/Messenger can exclusively reveal.

Hopes had been high that a potential purchaser had been found to take over the assets and liabilities of the ailing United Engineering Forgings plant, formerly Garringtons, at Aston Fields, last Thursday, November 1.

But on Monday, Simon Griffiths for administrators KPMG, based in Birmingham, who had been brought in to try to save the firm in early June said negotiations had broken down.

He declined to say why, or to name the potential buyer.

He did however stress that it was simply a set back and that the deal was not completely "dead and buried."

The factory is one of six sites in Britain being sold off separately.

Bromsgrove District Council was taken to task this week for failing to help the firm by granting the potential new owners a 50 per cent reduction in business rates from November 1 to March 31.

The rate currently payable on the occupied area of the giant auto components factory is £395,929.

Cllr Peter McDonald (Uffdown and Waseley), the leader of the opposition Labour group on the council, said the authority should step in to help as it did at the time of the Rover crisis.

He said: "I'm shocked and embarrassed to be part of an authority that refuses to lift a finger to help save jobs at one of the town's largest employers.

The leader of the council, Cllr Nick Psirides (Con, Norton), commented: "In Rover's case we knew our intervention wo-uld make a difference.

"At UEF plans had already been made and we knew our intervention would have no effect."